Hitting hard at former NAB chairman Retired Justice Javed Iqbal, Defence Minister Khwaja Asif has said that exemption given to some institution is a negation of constitution.
Taking the floor in the National Assembly on Wednesday, Kh Asif lamented that when former NAB chairman was summoned by the Public Accounts Committee, he refused to appear before the NA oversight body and went to the Islamabad High Court against the PAC order. He said if a uniformed general could appear before the court, why not the NAB chairman could appear.
The defence minister said it was our responsibility to protect the supremacy of the parliament which is enshrined in the constitution. He stressed for making the house’s committees more effective.
He said he was also witness to PAC Chairman Noor Alam Khan’s conversation with Tayyaba Gul. ‘Noor Alam has explained what happened to a woman if she goes to NAB,” he added.
While speaking in the assembly, PAC Chief Noor Alam said that he would not call Javed Iqbal a justice as he was a ‘criminal. He said that it was shameful that a man who remained the Supreme Court judge, he harassed a woman. He deplored wherever the PAC made an investigation, it found lots of muck there. He said ‘if there shouldn’t be an accountability, then suspend the rules and lock the institutions’.
Kh Asif fully endorsed the views of Noor Alam. He said accountability of people was held in Sindh, Balochistan, Punjab and Islamabad but no accountability was held in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Taking a dig at PTI Chairman Imran Khan, the defence minister said the former prime minister took money from Indians, Israelis and Americans. He said Imran should be ashamed of him when he submitted a false declaration in the foreign funding case.
He regretted that certain foreign funded elements compromised the supremacy of the parliament and violated the constitution.
He hit out at Imran saying the latter continued uttering strange things about the religion but no one bothered. ‘Nobody stages a sit-in in Faizabad against his utterances,” Asif rued.
Earlier, Parliamentary Secretary for Finance Rana Ishaq Khan told the house whilst responding to a calling attention notice that the rupee witnessed appreciation over the last two days. He said a 15% raise was given to the employees in the budget whilst low income groups were also being provided assistance through Benazir Income Support Programme. He said the PTI government destroyed the economy in its four-year tenure but we were committed to put it on the path of development again.
Alluding to the devastation caused by floods in the country, the Parliamentary Secretary said the government announced compensation for the affected families.
Responding to a calling attention notice moved by Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali and others, Parliamentary Secretary for Power Rana Iradat said the present government has reduced the circular debt which was doubled by the PTI government in its four-year tenure.
